Entropy
by Yochanan Suishoukin
Summary: Hudson's Bay City, the place where Phoenix is expected to have a vacation with his three assistants. Even though he is not a detective, he is forced to bear one of their curses.


_I'm aware that I butcher English in this fic, or the fact that none of my fics are ever finished. I'm just hoping this one does. Is anyone willing to beta it?_

_Takes place between case 1 and 3 of Justice For All. Also, expect a whole village of OC. _

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Between removing Maya from the defendant's stand and helping Pearls to cope with her mother's imprisonment, whatever was left from spring had quickly translated to the worst of summer as though July was nothing. The clouds, too, were swept away by some mysterious nefarious winds, giving the sun a grand opening for deep-frying the Earth mercilessly. While Los Angeles was by no means the coolest place on the States, this year it seemed to have reached a new boiling point. Maya hypothesized that cracking open an egg on a random rock on the street would result in a sunnyside up in less than a minute. I for one did not try it out just to convince myself that LA hadn't turned into Sahara just yet. It was already pathetic enough that I had to stay in front of Mr. Fan (as Pearls had called the big electric fan stationed right across my desk) in order to continue functioning, thank you very much.

Oddly enough, the heat seemed to have given both Pearls and Maya more kinetic energy to bounce around in the office. As odd as it was, we skipped spring cleaning and went straight into summer cleaning. Despite my best attempt to educate them that during summer the amount of dust and junk would only increase, Pearls and Maya's momentum, if anything, only picked up instead of depleting. It would probably have been more tolerable had they opted not to bother him as well. Alas, no such luck. Every few minutes or so Maya would cease her onslaught on the dust collected by Mia's books, glared at me and yelled, "Come on, Nick, who owns this place anyways?", to which I would just shrug and continued glaring at something else as she huffed and returned to the warfare against dust. Pearls, in a smaller frequency, stared at me with puppy eyes from time to time. Likewise, I tried not to even look at her.

Without any cases, I was stuck with the task I didn't really like but had to do which was reading law books. Mia had set a stack aside shortly after my passing the bar exam, saying that if the stack wouldn't be finished by the time I would take my fifth case I shouldn't even think of taking the sixth one. Well, State vs. Byrde (the second) was my seventh, and so far whenever Mia took the chance to 'posses' Pearls or Maya she didn't speak about that again. As much as I wanted to just do something else—like revitalizing poor Charlie, for an instance—unless I forced myself to do it now, it would never be done.

Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney, was reduced by the summer into a lazy twit who complained in his own head to himself. How Edgeworth would flip if he could see me now...

Without warning the door burst open, making our three heads swiveled in unison. On the threshold, puffing and seemingly having just ran thirty miles an hour was the exuberant-faced Ema Skye, my one time assistant. Wait, Ema?

"Hi, Mr. Wright", she saluted cheerily, the bag in her arm—a travelling bag, I've just asserted—flailed slightly. Then everything clicked together into place. Ema had been studying in Europe for half a year now, but during this summer break she flew home, partly because her current guardian was away doing a top secret CSI mission somewhere and partly because she had been dying to see Lana again, or so she said in one of her messages. Though the messages didn't give a precise date, I certainly didn't expect her to come today.

It must have shown on my face because she tilted her head and asked, "Didn't you receive my message, Mr. Wright?"

I rose in synch with Maya, who had initially been a bit shocked at the unusual interruption of August regularities. Ema finally noticed the spirit medium. She stretched out her hand. "Ema Skye."

Maya took and shook it. "Maya Fey."

"She was my assistant as well as one of my clients." At this both rose their eyebrows. "Yes, both of you, while the other was not around." At this both looked at each other appraisingly. Amusing, now that I thought about it. I had initially listened to Ema's pleas because she had kept giving me the déjà vu vibe. Two sisters, one was much older and was in trouble while the younger one either got the brunt of it or was in trouble herself. Actually, Maya and Ema were even more identical—

"Ah, you're the heir of the Fey clan!" Ema suddenly exclaimed, pointing at Maya's magatama. "And the sister of Mia Fey!"

"And you're the one involved in Nick's last case", Maya mimicked that action precisely, "the one involving the Chief Prosecutor! Hey, wasn't that your sister?"

As if it wasn't enough, Pearls too chimed in. "Mr. Nick, are you cheating on Mystic Maya?"

Needless to say, three pairs of eyes ogled at Pearls who stared, or rather glared, back at Ema. Pearls was sweet, but her imagination was also top notch bordering on out of this world.

I cleared my throat, gaining their focus. "Good to see you again, Ema, but what are you doing here now? I mean, I thought you were going to call me first before visiting." Not to mention that large bag that was now sitting next to Ema's foot, but that was not that big of a concern since it would only be logical that Ema somehow came to me asking for a place to stay.

Ema stared at me with wide eyes. "But I did, Mr. Wright, didn't you receive it?"

"I did?" I replied stupidly without thinking. Only after I said that did I remember that the phone had been beeping some time. Pearls had 'killed' it while I was away to the toilet, saying that she thought it was broken. At the very least, it was not really broken.

"Mr. Wright!" Ema huffed indignantly. "Scientifically, guys who ignore girls' calls will remain virgin even after they pass their mid-age."

Maya giggled at this. "And why are you worried about that?"

Pearls, on the other hand, pouted. "Yeah, why do you care?"

Ema blinked, looking at me for clue. I looked back at her, hoping that she, as a girl Maya's age, should at least have a sense of what the channeler spoke of sometimes.

From the looks of it, awkward moments like this would occur frequently in the future.

"Anyways", Ema continued, still looking slightly annoyed. She dug into her bag and pulled out an envelope. I took it, open the sealed letter and started reading. "Lana has prepared this in case you forgot."

_Mr. Phoenix Wright,_

_If you're reading this, then Ema is currently in your office, or wherever you are meeting right now, and you have not listened to Ema's latest phone calls. There is no danger whatsoever involved as far as I know; this is just purely informational._

_As you know currently Ema is here in Los Angeles for summer break. She is scheduled to return to her school by the end of August or the earliest my friend can house her again. Until then, she is under your care._

I paused reading while supressing a groan. Another girl in my office? I didn't have anything against Ema, or even Maya and Pearl, but three girls were really not something easy to handle, contrary to popular belief. It was also a great gossip fodder, though luckily I was not popular enough to be hunted down by paparazzi. Yikes, the bad mental image of Lotta chasing me around--

_She will not stay with you all of the time, however. Ema also has another task to do in the United States. I would like you to accompany her on that mission._

Mission? The way Lana wrote it, I would have thought it was something along the line of espionage. Maya (she was peering from my side) seemed to think of it that way, because she threw an odd look at Ema.

_Our parents had—and in turn, we have—a couple of family friends who live not too far from the city we live in. We used to visit them annually, but in the recent seven years I was too burdened by work to continue doing so. Ema will visit Hudson's Bay City--that's a town just two hours from north Los Angeles—as courtesy, which brings me back to my first point. I would like you to have a vacation and accompany Ema on her trip._

"Honeymoon already, Mr. Nick?" Pearls exclaimed somewhere on my left. Since she wasn't tall enough to read on her own, Maya had taken to read it loudly. The poor little thing glared at Ema as if wanting to evaporate her while the rest of us just stare at Pearls pitifully.

"...Maya, what did Pearls watch yesterday?"

"I have no idea, Nick...Maybe she channeled a crazy fangirl by mistake."

Unless she channeled a younger version of herself, which would fit in that crazy theory and explain why her physique didn't change, I had to assume the worst and ban Pearls from watching anything remotely romantic. That had to come later, for now I had to settle with just patting her head and uttering, "Pearls, I'm not getting married to anyone soon, okay?"

Pearls, still glaring at the clueless Ema, nodded. Ema turned to stare at me. I gave her my best impression of one of Detective Gumshoe's clueless expression. She just quirked an eyebrow but thankfully said nothing. I returned to the letter which, unsurprisingly, was still not finished. Typical Lana, turning something as simple as requesting an acquaintance to escort her sister into a mission that was either hit or miss.

_She is expected to be there by six o'clock this evening, or in case that is not possible, by noon tomorrow. Her visit is to be three days and two nights unless something greatly impending occurs. You are to accompany her and to stay within the same building as Ema. Don't worry, accommodation is provided by the host and they are more than willing to take a few more under their roofs. Ema had told me about some of the other assistants you might have. You are allowed to bring them with you. _

I frowned at this. Did they know that I have two assistants with me at the moment? I honestly couldn't see anyone taking in three strangers, one an adult male and two girls. That notion and the fact that Lana wrote this letter like an order from a superior to a subordinate made me start thinking of what ulterior motive they might have. A case, most likely. So much for vacation, but at least I wouldn't have to worry about the next few months.

And stop jumping to conclusions, Phoenix, the letter isn't even finished yet.

_Hudson's Bay City is located not too far away from north Los Angeles, as I have mentioned, it is only two hours by train. You will leave at one o'clock sharp from the station. I have had Ema booked a seat for you and your two assistants, so all you need to do is to show up there on time._

_Consider this your second round of payment, and that you deserve this vacation. I hope you can enjoy the vacation._

_Lana Skye_

Maya suddenly looked up at me with a strange expression, like the one Pearls always wore whenever we were talking about other women other than Maya—or more accurately, the one she was currently having. Hold it...she didn't assume...

...At least now I knew who influenced Pearls...

Ignoring them, I looked at Ema and said, "So I'm expected to pack my stuffs right away and dash to the station right now?"

"The plan was that you had received my message and therefore all you need to do was to wait for me and depart to the station", Ema replied, still rather sourly, "but I guess you can say that. You are coming, aren't you?" She suddenly looked rather apprehensive.

Good question. No clients had popped up ever since Maggey did, and I doubt any would pop up some time in the near future. Getting out of this office and postponing the grave issue of cleaning it up was also tempting. Doing so using someone's hospitality, a stranger's hospitality moreover, was discouraging. I was suspicious of their motive, yes—though this was dampened somewhat by the fact that the Skyes suggested it. While I was definitely nothing like Edgeworth, I did have a pride, and right not it told me not to accept the offer.

"Oh, come on, Nick, what can be bad about it?" Maya urged impatiently, accompanied by Pearls' nods and Ema's pout.

"Mr. Wright, do you think that Lana and me are plotting something for you?" She quipped.

Ack! I didn't mean it that way! "No, that's not it! It's just--"

"Then what is it, Mr. Nick?"

Wow, I was cornered by three girls far younger than me. Edgeworth would be rolling in his grave.

"I—well, I was taught not to randomly accept someone's help." Not really a lie, but not really the truth either since I had broken that with requesting Mia's defense. Ow, what was I thinking? I'm a defense attorney, and that's the best I can come up with? No wonder not many people came here.

In my defense for my sanity (arguing with oneself is the sign of insanity, apparently), whatever it was that caused my rejection was never logical to begin with.

"Mr. Wright, Lana is hardly ever random", Ema quipped with a tinge of wariness in her voice. "Please? You can really use a vacation yourself."

"Yeah, Nick", Maya chirped, "did you see yourself in a mirror? You're just like this Nickel Samurai enemy Bizzaro--"

"Yes, yes, I get it." No need to launch into fangirl mode, Maya, you scare me every time you do it anyway. "I take it you and Pearls are coming as well?"

Pearl bounced and clapped. "Yes, please, Mr. Nick." Oh, yeah, she hadn't seen anything outside of Kurain, and recently, west Los Angeles.

"Then pack up and meet me downstairs in..." I glanced at the clock. Only one hour from the designated departure time. Good thing the station was close. "...in fifteen minutes. Just bring clothes and stuffs you can't live without for three days. Ema, you can help them if you want."

Ema gave me a salute and the three girls marched to their room, the one they used whenever they were sleeping over here. Once the stampeding noise ceased and I was left to myself, I sighed. I didn't live in this office; I had a home somewhere else. Since Maya, and then Pearls, started staying here, though, I started keeping some of my daily needs here too—there was no way I would let two girls sleeping in a dark and gloomy office all by themselves. So I just needed to shift to my corner, opened the drawers and dumped whatever was in there, and went through everything just to make sure I missed nothing.

Vacation, eh? Here's hoping I can really use it as a break from the real world.

...Why did I feel like I forget something?


End file.
